propmodo
Summary
King’s Cross is an area of London that is home to three of England’s busiest rail stations. Historically, it was not considered a desirable place to live. A partnership between London-based Argent and Related, have since embarked on a massive master-planned development that includes over 4 million square feet of premium office space, 500,000 square feet of retail, and around 1,750 multifamily units.
Besides the massive scale of the development, one of the challenges was working with the historic buildings in the area. To protect the cultural heritage that many of the structures represent, the developers decided to retrofit many of the older buildings rather than demolish them to make room for new ones. Using the historic buildings helps give the new Kings Cross Central development much of its character, but it also created challenges for the team, which is operating under a mandate to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2035.
The entire area uses a district heating and cooling system, but efficiently delivering hot or cold air throughout the historic buildings is a complex task. “We didn’t have the option to strip many of the buildings back to install sensors for the BMS systems,” said Jack Sibley, Head of Proptech and Innovation at Related Argent. Instead, they have been experimenting with wireless, battery-powered sensors that can support a variable response rate HVAC system. “Our buildings have LoRaWAN backbones so we can add sensors easily and continue to improve the systems,” Sibley said.
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